The effects of Stress on Decision Making, Communication and Situational Awareness, applied to Air Attack Supervision Training in Aerial Firefighting

About this research

Rory M.S. Clifford (Kai Tahu, Kāti Māmoe), University of Canterbury

The aim is to publish a research article on the findings of my research into the effects of Stress on Decision Making, Communication and Situational Awareness, applied to Air Attack Supervision Training in Aerial Firefighting. This will target the Sage journal of Simulation and Gaming, https://journals.sagepub.com/home/sag which is indexed by Scopus (CiteScore 1.570).

The innovations of this work is that the research is highly novel, in that although aerial firefighting with helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft has been practised for decades, the elements of the occupation have not been investigated and documented academically or published in peer-review publications until now, making this work highly significant to the global community and to improving the safety and outcomes of Firefighter training in stressful, high-risk occupations.

The objectives of this work will be achieved by compiling a 7000 word research article, using data and research conducted over the duration of my PhD thesis from four independant studies with professional firefighters. The target date of the journal article submission will be 30th of September 2020.

The Nature of the collaboration is very high, as the research was conducted with Fire and Emergency New Zealand, as a way to integrate the simulation technology into their existing training programme. Each study has comprised of FENZ personel which has lead to the research being of high ecological validity.

The expected outcome of this work is global notoriety, putting the research that was conducted and still continues to be conducted into the light. Since this type of research is very novel around the world, global researchers can look to these results and apply them to their own high-stress, high-risk occupations in simulation training. Contributions to the Māori community include following a tikanga Māori He Awa Whiria (braided river model) approach to integrating the multi-disciplinary elements, by weaving together the strengths of the various disciplines, confining the goals to that of the FENZ trainers and trainees.

Additionally, many of our natural taonga such as ngāhere, rākau manu, ngārara and mokomoko being of sacred nature in Te Tai Ao, are heavily effected by wildfires and forest fires, destroying habitat and our natural resources due to climate change effects. This work provides firefighters better, safer training mechanisms to be more effective in the field, so they can reduce the devastating effects of wildfires on  the health of our taonga species, ensuring habitats are healthy for our taonga in Te Tai Ao.